Don't think you are an app developer or so called app expert, other people here are not. Last thing I want is to argue with you and hijack the thread as long as we all express our points.

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As a app developer and a software engineer in general there has been a push to take apps to the Web for cross OS compatibility but this push has been from the developers not android and apple or BlackBerry. There has been whole frameworks developed to accomplish this but they have lacked the full native experience that native apps have. The OS companies don't want apps developed in the Web, they want them developed native. I don't see companies releasing there grip any time soon so for now I don't see any serious apps being developed in the web.

IHS also observed that Blackberry is “actually still going strong” in some parts of the world and has a very active user base in in South Africa, the Middle East and Indonesia, where its growth strategy is likely to be focused.

BBM’s success in Indonesia prompted it to launch its mobile payment service BBM Money there and in the Middle East it has 42 million registered users, with 70 percent of monthly active users actually active each day.

BlackBerry said BBM was installed more than 1 million times in October in the Middle East, adding that the region is “an extremely strong market” and a “solid contributor” to its user base.

Apple executives are wrestling with how to strengthen iCloud encryption without inconveniencing users

Apple Inc. has refused federal requests to help unlock the phone of San Bernardino gunman Syed Rizwan Farook. But the company turned over data from his phone that Mr. Farook had backed up on its iCloud service.

Soon, that may not be so simple. Apple is working to bolster its encryption so that it won’t be able to decode user information stored in iCloud, according to people familiar with the matter.

But Apple executives are wrestling with how to strengthen iCloud encryption without inconveniencing users. Apple prides itself on creating intuitive, easy-to-use software, and some in the company worry about adding complexity.

If a user forgets a password, for example, and Apple doesn’t have the keys, the user might lose access to photos and other important data. If Apple keeps a copy of the key, the copy be “can be compromised or the service can be compelled to turn it over,” said Window Snyder, a former Apple security and privacy manager who is now chief security officer at Fastly, a content-delivery network.

The issue is similar in the physical world: tighter security means more hurdles, such as more locks or codes for a home alarm system.

As a result, the timing of any move to strengthen encryption is uncertain. The Financial Times earlier reported on Apple’s plans to encrypt iCloud backups.

Apple’s iCloud is a set of Internet services that allow users to store and sync data across their devices. A photo taken on an iPhone, for example, can appear automatically on a Mac or iPad with the same iCloud account.

When connected to Wi-Fi, iCloud’s backup service automatically takes a daily snapshot of a phone’s contents. Customers can use backups to transfer photos, iMessages, health data, and other information from an old iPhone when they buy a new one.

Apple already stores some data that it can’t access or read, in a feature called iCloud Keychain, where a user can store passwords and credit-card information.

Another device associated with the same iCloud account can provide permission to a new phone to access Keychain. But not everyone has more than one Apple device. A user also could create a security code to regain access, but if the user enters an incorrect code 10 times, Apple removes the Keychain account from its servers.

An Apple spokeswoman pointed to comments by Craig Federighi, the company’s senior vice president of software engineering, in a March 6 opinion piece in the Washington Post. “Security is an endless race—one that you can lead but never decisively win,” Mr. Federighi wrote. “Yesterday’s best defenses cannot fend off the attacks of today or tomorrow.”

To get a sense of the challenge, consider software maker Box Inc., which provides a way for businesses to store data on remote computers in the “cloud.” It took Box three years to design a system to encrypt corporate information so that it couldn’t access the data, without hindering popular features such as document preview, or forcing users to download additional apps.

Box Keysafe works much like a bank safe-deposit box, with one key held by the owner and one key held by Box. Without both keys, the data can’t be decrypted so Box alone can’t access the information. Box Chief Executive Aaron Levie said he can foresee consumers seeking similar protection. “The cloud is going more and more in this direction,” he said.

Any steps Apple takes to close off access to iCloud backups are likely to further antagonize law-enforcement authorities, for which the backups can be a trove of useful data.

“No doubt it will,” said Robert Cattanach, a partner at law firm Dorsey & Whitney LLP and a former Justice Department attorney. “It could present a fairly significant burden to law enforcement.”

Apple has fought the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s requests to help unlock Mr. Farook’s iPhone, which was last backed up on Oct. 19, about six weeks before he and his wife killed 14 people in a Dec. 2 terrorist attack.

Apple says the device is encrypted in a way that leaves Apple itself without access to the data, the result of a change it made in its iPhone software in 2014.

In court documents, the FBI has said that the iCloud files revealed that Mr. Farook communicated with some people killed in the attack. In a declaration filed in the case, Christopher Pluhar, an FBI supervisory special agent in the San Bernardino investigation, said iCloud backups could provide “valuable evidence,” but offered no specifics of what investigators learned from Mr. Farook’s data.

The phone could contain information about Mr. Farook’s movements and communications after its last backup. For example, the government has said in court papers that phone records show Mr. Farook communicated with wife and fellow attacker Tashfeen Malik after that backup.

ICloud backup data is used “very significantly and very often” to investigate a technology-facilitated crime, said Edward McAndrew, a partner at law firm Ballard Spahr and a former federal prosecutor in Virginia. Backups can provide information already deleted on the phone, he said. A criminal might, for example, try to remove incriminating evidence from his phone after getting wind of an investigation.

“This is another example of Apple taking steps to better secure its products, while contemporaneously” reducing its role in government investigations, Mr. McAndrew said.

Anyone have any insight as to what is happening with HALO? Am I missing something? ER was good, and nothing negative as of late. Is it a result of Valeant pulling most of the sector down? Just wondering if any of the guru's on this thread had any thoughts.

Thanks for all the advise, you guys on here have been keeping me sane, market wise, through 2016.

Anyone have any insight as to what is happening with HALO? Am I missing something? ER was good, and nothing negative as of late. Is it a result of Valeant pulling most of the sector down? Just wondering if any of the guru's on this thread had any thoughts.

Thanks for all the advise, you guys on here have been keeping me sane, market wise, through 2016.

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More OT:

Take a moment to look at a 3-year, IBB Index chart, go to stockcharts.com and type in "IBB" and change the perimeters to 3-years. There you will see how the Index has performed over the past three years as the clear title holder of the industry/market leader, then factor in Hilary Clinton and our recent lows in February. Clinton, and really, both parties, are putting the brakes on Biotech until after the election. When you see her using Valeant as her argument for bad biotech, you know it will be the best of the best healthcare stocks that can go up from now until the election is over.

There is nothing wrong with HALO, it one of the best of breed biotechs out there today. But everyone knows that Hilary thinks drugs should cost patients around $ 12.00/month, she doesn't understand how the system works, the billions of dollars spent, the failures etc., she knows nothing more than how to buy tent dresses in bulk.

I have often said to watch the IBB Index and not the individual stock today because if the IBB Index finally turns positive your stocks will fly. I know it is difficult to stay in these things right now but the value is there and the upside is huge. Let's agree to sell some of our BBRY in the first of April (post announcing 5 MM PRIVS sold in the Q4 period) for $ 15.00/shr and roll some of that money into biotechs.

Be patient, ignore the rhetoric of Hilary and focus on the Index only.

I tore off bloatware, spyware, resource hogs, etc. Almost the day I got my first bb10... and Sachesi of course.

I also stop services in device manager. Paranoid? Perhaps, but that is the primary reason I use BlackBerry.
When you hold sensitive data, Book-Face isn't going to work.

I don't know the first thing about app development, but that trend that bb-king mentioned seems plausible. I always choose a link-to over an app when provided. Keeps things clog-free, and allows me full control.
It makes sense that instead of stand-alone Apps, the Web will be the interface, and simple 'add-ons' will be used in situ.

Don't think you are an app developer or so called app expert, other people here are not. Last thing I want is to argue with you and hijack the thread as long as we all express our points.

Well you don't have to believe me. Believe Chen and his leadership team, who have made a major change in the company's overall device strategy because they believe people continue to want apps. That's half the reason the Priv exists, right?